


Target Practice

by SmilinStar



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: F/M, Originally Posted on Tumblr, Ward x Simmons Ship Week
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-26
Updated: 2014-02-26
Packaged: 2018-01-13 21:32:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,465
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1241455
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SmilinStar/pseuds/SmilinStar
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This was supposed to be a fun day out for the team. This, in her mind, is not what she’d call fun.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Target Practice

**Author's Note:**

> This was written for Ward/Simmons Ship Week, based on the theme “I’ll Catch You If You Fall”.

 

The shots are getting closer, the noise ringing in her ears as she surges forwards. She pays no attention to the splash of mud underfoot and she barely manages to clear the fallen logs that obstruct her path, stumbling but thankfully still upright.

She runs and runs, the wind whipping around her, so loud yet not loud enough that she doesn’t hear the blast of the shot hitting the tree beside her.

Too close. Far too close this time.

This was supposed to be a fun day out for the team.

This, in her mind, is not what she’d call fun.

She hears the frantic yell of her name a split second too late, and before she can even register what is happening, she is faced with the full force of Agent Grant Ward running towards her and pushing her on to the horribly wet ground.

She lands with an almighty thud and she swears she’s seeing stars when her head bounces back from the impact.

She can see the aftermath of the shot that had been meant for her on the decaying tree stump not ten metres from where she lies.

She has no time to dwell on it though, and finds herself robbed of all thought a mere few seconds later when she’s struck twice at close range. It doesn’t hurt, just stings, and if she’s perfectly honest, she’s just glad it’s finally over.

She hears the gleeful laughter, and Skye’s victorious cry of “Suckers!” and she can’t help feel a little irritated.

Oh but it’s not quite over yet.

Her partner in crime arrives just a second after and unloads the remains of his last clip on to Ward’s back and how he still manages not to collapse entirely on top of her she doesn’t really understand. And if she curses the strength of the arms holding him up and over her in the safely hidden, deep vaults of her brain, she shrugs it away as a perfectly reasonable response to having this particular man half lying on top of her.

She’s far too busy staring up at his jaw line to pay any attention to Fitz and Skye’s ridiculous little victory dance.

“You’ve not won yet,” Ward snaps up at them, “I still wouldn’t bet against Coulson and The Cavalry.”

“Yeah, we’ll see,” Skye promises, her voice dripping with smugness.

“He’s right,” she hears Fitz say, ever the precautious one, “We need to get moving, I’m sure they’re not far behind.”

Skye nods, “Yeah you’re right, but not before …”

Jemma’s view is blocked by Ward’s arm as he continues to hold himself up. She can see the strain in each muscle despite the trickle of fresh blue paint running down its length. She might have been unabashedly ogling his biceps but that didn’t mean she couldn’t hear the strange rustle of clothing, followed by the unmistakeable click of a camera on someone’s phone.

“Seriously?!”

“What?” the hacker says, “This is golden. Perfect blackmail material.”

“Skye!” Ward half-growls behind gritted teeth and Jemma thinks she may have melted into the ground and become at one with the mud she’s lying in with the sound.

She hears laughter again, and an utterance of “Let’s go Fitz. We’ve got a match to win. See you two losers back at base camp!”

Their footsteps fade away a few moments later and the two of them are left alone in a silence broken only by the rustling of leaves in the wind and the sound of their breath hitting the cold autumnal air.

She sees the decision to move off of her play out on his face.

For reasons she doesn’t particularly want to evaluate, she’s not quite ready to let this go.

“You know I’m pretty sure you promised to catch me if I fall, not make me fall.”

He raises an eyebrow, but doesn’t move any further away from her. It makes her feel rather happily lightheaded. She blames the knock on her head for it.

“You were a sitting duck Simmons, I had to get you out the way.”

She shifts below him, only now paying attention to the fact he has one leg sandwiched between hers and the lower half of his torso is resting quite pleasantly across her. Warm, heavy and strong.

“Well I’m not sure tackling me to the ground was your wisest idea Agent Ward, because it made _you_  the sitting duck and landed you in your current predicament, dripping in primary coloured paint.”

“We were going to lose the game the moment you got shot. You die, I die remember.”

She bites down on her lower lip to stop the grin threatening to take over her face, and his eyes instantly follow.

“How utterly noble, romantic and Jack Dawson of you.”

She sees the confusion crease his forehead, and she’s pretty sure his cheeks are turning just a little red. The mixture of puzzlement and embarrassment is a look he pulls off surprisingly well.

She knows she’s not helping the matter any, but she can’t help but try and over explain, “You know. Titanic. I jump, you jump, remember? You know the scene where Rose tells Jack she’s marrying that bastard and he just tells her he knows how the world works and he has nothing to offer her … and you know what, this has nothing to do with anything, I think I’m concussed. Just blame it on the concussion.”

Now it’s her turn to flush pink with embarrassment and it’s starting to have everything to do with this man who is still lying on top of her, in the middle of woodland, covered in paint and mud, and who despite it all somehow still manages to look sinfully good.

Her Grant Ward problem was most definitely getting out of hand.

Her ramble is all the impetus Ward needs apparently to get over his embarrassment and she watches with a certain sense of doom as a grin starts to play on his lips, and his dark eyes dance all over her face landing squarely back on her own.

She feels her stomach do a funny little swoop and mentally thanks Skye once again for rigging the game and partnering them up.

She was sure something had been bubbling between them for the last few months. For the longest time she had thought it was just a silly little one-sided crush but Skye and her big mouth had got her thinking that maybe it wasn’t just her.

“You think I have nothing to offer you?”

The tension in his arms slack and she feels him lean on her just a little more heavily, and with that teasing smile, she now knows it’s the truth.

Feeling unexpectedly powerful, she brazenly answers, “No, I don’t think you do.”

“Really?” he asks, voice low and smooth, and she can see just where this is heading and she can’t quite believe its happening.

Of course, given their luck, May and Coulson decide to show up at just that exact moment.

She feels the sting of another paintball hitting her side, but it’s Grant that gets the full brunt of the attack.

He rolls off of her to the side and stares up at the two agents standing there, looking decidedly pissed off, “What the hell?!”

“Double tap,” Coulson says, “Just making sure.”

“I think sir, we were pretty dead already.”

He looks between the both of them lying there on the ground and then stares down hard at the specialist, “Not yet. But if you’re not careful …”

Ward catches on pretty quickly and replies with a stoic, “Yes sir.” It takes her a moment too long as she looks between the two men and then realisation hits and she lets out a soft, “Oh.”

She swears she sees a small smile on May’s face, before she breaks the awkwardness with a “Which way?”

Still a bit dazed, she points roughly in the direction she heard them go and says at the same time as Ward, “They went that way.”

Coulson nods his thanks and then disappears with May hot on his heels.

“Did that just happen?” she asks, not particularly looking for an answer.

She hears Grant laugh and looks to find him already standing on his feet with an arm held out.

She accepts the offer, grabs hold of his hand and lets him pull her up.

He doesn’t let go once she’s standing. If anything, he holds on just a little tighter.

“What do you say to us heading back, getting cleaned up and finishing this conversation?”

She pulls him around and walks backwards without missing a beat.  Tugging him forwards, she says with a beatific smile, “I look forward to hearing just what exactly you have to offer Agent Ward.”

 


End file.
